Ohio man faces trial on child rape charges

Tuesday, January 08, 2013 12:56 AM

TROY, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio man faces trial Tuesday on charges that he raped the adopted son of a man who has pleaded guilty to raping three boys in his care.

Jason Zwick, 30, is charged in Miami County with three counts of raping a minor under 13. The adoptive father is expected to testify for the prosecution, after a plea agreement under which he will serve 60 years to life in prison.

Miami County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Gee has ruled that the boy Zwick is accused of raping can testify by closed circuit television, instead of taking the stand in the full courtroom.

Trial is expected to last about a week.

A message for comment was left Monday for Zwick's attorney.

Zwick, of the Dayton suburb of Beavercreek, allegedly went to the 40-year-old adoptive father's home in Troy to rape the boy after the men communicated online. The Associated Press isn't naming the adoptive father, to protect the children's identities.

The Troy man was a longtime foster father who had adopted two boys and a girl and was in the process of adopting a fourth child, another boy, when arrested last February. The children were ages 9-12 at the time of his arrest.

He also has pleaded guilty in neighboring Montgomery County to child rape and complicity to rape. In that case, he was charged with taking the boy, who was then 10, to the home of Patrick Rieder, 32, of Dayton. Rieder's trial is scheduled Feb. 19 on four counts of rape of a child under 13.

The adoptive father also agreed to testify in Rieder's trial. His Montgomery County sentencing is tentatively set for Feb. 26, and the plea agreement there calls for 50 years to life in prison.

Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr. last month called the adoptive father a child abuser who "will basically spend the rest of his natural life locked up."

The adoptive father told The Associated Press in a recent interview that he was sorry for hurting the children, and hoped they would be spared from testifying.

Authorities say they made the arrests after an investigation that began with an undercover detective checking into an online posting about "taboo sex."